Wednesday, July 31, 2013

The most significant news of the past quarter was the abhorrent
actions of former employee, Edward Snowden, who had worked at Booz Allen
for less than 10 weeks. I spoke to all of our employees at a townhall
meeting the week following his announcement that he had leaked highly
sensitive national security information. I'd like to share with you
something I said to our people that day. I told our employees, Mr.
Snowden was on our payroll for a short period of time, but he was not a
Booz Allen person and he did not share our values. We cannot and will
not let him define us. That is the most important message I can convey.
You define us. The work we do for our clients defines us.

Now in
that regard, we continue to do everything possible to support our
clients' mission and the United States government's law enforcement
investigation. Within the firm, we're being vigilant and are supporting
our employees, especially those working with the intelligence community.
And on a personal note, I've been touched by the words of support from
those in the business community and especially from our clients, showing
that our long-term clients know the kind of company we are.

I'd
like to leave that subject behind now and talk about the things we can
control. First and foremost, we're serving our clients with the
highest-quality work and commitment to their mission. We're supporting
our people and the communities in which we work and live, and are
delivering value to our stockholders through effective management of the
business and capital deployment choices. And we're making some exciting
plans to recognize Booz Allen Hamilton's 100th anniversary year, which
begins in January of 2014.

How far has the United States come since our founding? Recall a more mature Thomas Jefferson turned down an inheritance that would've free his slaves, later putting those same slaves up as collateral for a huge loan.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

The universal defense to the myriad of domestic spying programs is "If you're not talking with terrorists, we're not violating your privacy." Operationalized, this turns into "if you're not connected to terrorists by three intermediary relationships, think Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon, we're not looking at you." Those relationships could be as simple as someone reading a blog, Twitter feed or Facebook page. HuffPoreported:

President Obama said again and again that the U.S. is at war with “Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and their associated forces.”

The Pentagon refused to identify with whom America is at war:

A Pentagon spokesman said revealing such a list (of associated forces) could cause “serious damage to national security.”

“Because elements that might be considered ‘associated forces’ can
build credibility by being listed as such by the United States, we have
classified the list,” said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Jim Gregory. “We
cannot afford to inflate these organizations that rely on violent
extremist ideology to strengthen their ranks.”

Americans are supposed to avoid people who know people who might talk to someone who "might be considered associated forces," but those groups are a secret. And Americans can't look up on a public database and find when Congress declared war and on whom. Does this make any sense? Only in today's world of abysmal leadership, spin and hyper-complexity.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

...the most powerful political officials cannot commit crimes or engage
in serious wrongdoing. The only political crimes come from exposing and
aggressively challenging those officials. How is it anything
other than pure whistleblowing to disclose secret documents proving that
top government officials have been systematically deceiving the public
about vital matters and/or skirting if not violating legal and Constitutional limits?

The same applies to the most powerful private officials, specifically the big money boys, many of whom are private equity underwriters (PEU's). The Carlyle Group somehow avoided a bad name for:

Carlyle cofounders David Rubenstein, Bill Conway and Danny D'Aniello settled with the New York State Attorney General for $20 million to get out of a pension "pay to play" investigation.

Neither politicians, appointed officials or their financiers are held to account for their misdeeds, much less charged with crimes. They're insulated and protected by fellow members of the Government-Corporate Monstrosity, Eisnehower's Military-Industrial Complex on trillions in federal steroids.

General James Clapper defended the Government-Corporate Monstrosity by vilifying Snowden and anyone who might show actual concern. Clapper defended his three years as a Booz Allen Hamilton executive and his subsequent enrichment via the GCM.

(In 1995) Clapper worked as executive director of military intelligence programs for
defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. In 1998 he moved on to
Intelligence Programs director for SRA International, another government
contractor. In October 2006 Clapper was hired as chief operating officer for DFI Government Services,
a national security consulting firm. DFI was soon acquired by Detica
which was, in turn, bought out by BAE Systems. Also in October 2006,
Clapper joined the board of directors of 3001 International, a prime contractor of the NGA that was acquired by Northup Grumman in September 2008.

The GCM has an all out war on whistleblowers, the public servant and private employee kind. Whistleblowers face a monster wave of retaliation. The politically powerful, who lie with no conscience, face no consequences. Image must be maintained at all costs.